First day on orbit a great success!

May 17, 2016

The MinXSS team right after watching ISS deployment.

The spacecraft is very healthy. We received beacons on our very first pass over Boulder, which indicated that the spacecraft battery state of charge is high, all deployables (solar panels and antenna) were successful, and attitude determination and control (thanks to the Blue Canyon Technologies XACT) is working. We’ve also been receiving beacons from amateur radio operators around the world, including Japan, Indonesia, South Africa, the UK and Brazil. Thank you SO MUCH to them!

We are still fine-tuning our up and downlink frequencies. We have yet to get a command into the spacecraft, which won’t happen until we nail down the frequency. That’s what Day 2 will be all about.

Day 2 is about to begin with our first pass (of 5) of the day in 25 minutes.